2009 almost wrapped up

Well the schedule is becoming more set as I received confirmation that I am in the May version of the Escape from Alcatraz race.  This will be my focus race for the year, but I should have plenty of time to get back and ready for one of the half-ironman races in September or October.

Got in a few runs and a couple of one milers in the pool last week leading up to Christmas, but the regular stuff is starting now.  Today ran a 10K at 55 min pace during lunch and also snuck in about 1K in the pool as well.  (needless to say it was a long lunch).  Time to get the trainer back out for some small bike work, and also need to scout out some serious hills in the area for repeat work.  The San Fran race will be by far the most vertical racing I have done as of yet.

Final schedule is due next week.  Off to Orlando for New Years and some warm weather runs.

Back at it

Back on it, I’m going to try to stay a little more regular this week.  Today had a 45 min 5 mile run with 20 minutes of easy pace then stair stepping speed for the next 15 minutes on the treadmill.  Average was a bit under 9 min/mile pace.   After the run did about 20 minutes of circuit work with abs and shoulder work.  I had a little bit of pain in my shin but felt good in the end. 

I’m looking for three speed workouts and need to try to get a 10 mile distance run in over the weekend.

2010 considerations

The list for next year is starting to come together with a few regulars and some wildcards.  Definite races include:

-ING Atlanta Marathon (March)

-Peachtree Road Race (July)

-Sandestin Sprint Triathlon (August)

-Tugaloo Olympic Triathlon (September)

Augusta 70.3 (September)

Here are the others I am trying to fit.  Looking at the Sweetwater Creek 50K trail run in May, this will be a huge challenge, but worth it for base fitness.  In the Lottery for the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon which is in May as well.  I need to hear back from them before I commit to the 50K trail run.  Also looking at another off roader the Muddy Buddy race in June here in Atlanta.  There are a few more 70.3’s I am considering instead of doing Augusta, but I need to keep them semi-local.  I should have the final season mapped by mid-January, but it is time to put a plan on paper for ING coming up in March.  I need to get on a regular plan before Christmas rolls around.

Post Thanksgiving Wrap-up

Still nothing structured but have kept a few long runs to maintain over the past two weeks.  Put in a 12 miler the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving in 1:51, so that has me close where I would like to be for an easy sub 2h half marathon, also ran a homemade 10K on Thanksgiving morning along the GW Parkway from my sisters house to Mt. Vernon.  Was cold and did not feel like running but put in a 55min time, so that was enough to stock up and eat the rest of the day.

Over the next two weeks I am going to try to get back to the pool a bit so by the end of December I should be back to 2-3 swims per week of 2000 yards.

Also, entered the lottery for the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon next May and will know by January if that is a go.  This would be an awesome event and the first field I can get in that would have a bunch of world class triathlon stars.  Lets keep the fingers crossed.

Still Laying Low

All right, just to check in recovery is in full effect and I have yet to get back to a schedule of workouts.  In the past month I have put a 10 miler, a few 6-7 milers and some speed work in running.  Also got on the bike two times, both around 25 miles each, and have been in the pool a few times.  Just trying to keep some minimum form.

So far my weight has held steady in the 190-195 range, so that is a good thing and should allow me to get down to about 180 by next summer for racing.  It looks like I will bite off another 70.3 next year, most likely Augusta again to get a few friends involved.  I do know that I want to do more races throughout the entire season.  At least one per month.  Next year is all about getting close to a podium in some shorter races.  I will start picking a few key races as the year closes down, then work around those.  Maybe an XTERRA thrown in?  Who knows.  I will be starting the season with the ING Atlanta Half Marathon as the run base again, but will start biking and swimming regularly as soon as the new year turns to get racing sooner. 

Off to DC for Thanksgiving.  Have a good one.

Fall 5 Miler

Race went well.  45 degrees and overcast for the run.  First two mile split was at 15 min even, so I might have gone out a bit fast.  Mile 2-3 had some hills so pace slowed a bit and I had 16 minutes to get the last 2 miles in to make the 40 minute goal.  Finished strong and came in at 39:47 total time (7:58 pace).  For the first time since the half-ironman I could tell that I am not fully recovered from that effort.  Legs felt tired, but I got home under the goal.

Overall place (out of 538) 125th.  91st out of 263 men, and 20th out of 46 in the 35-40 age group.  Made the main goal of sub 8 min pace by a few seconds!

Fall 5 Miler Tomorrow

Nice and easy week to get back into some more regular training.  Last Friday got in a 6.5 mile hill run at lunch with one of my coworkers, then turned in a 7.5 miler on Sunday instead of getting out on the bike.  That one took about 65 minutes.  Tuesday went to the gym and did some weight work and Wednesday got in a 3 mile treadmill run over 25 minutes, followed by 1,000 meters in the pool.

Today will finish with some more weight work, and have the Fall 5 Miler race tomorrow.  This race is right outside my neighborhood so it should be a nice morning run.  Temps are scheduled to be in the low 40’s in the morning here in Atlanta, coldest it has been in a while.  I am shooting for a 40 minute run time which would bring my race pace down to the 8 minute mark.  If I beat 40 minutes I will be very happy, but no pressure at all.  Just looking forward to a nice run with 1000 of my neighbors and a good technical long sleeve shirt to add to the collection.  May try to sneak out on a 3 hour bike ride Sunday if I can work it out with the kiddos.

10 days later……

After almost a week completely off I was able to get back into the swing of things.  Monday after the race I rolled my ankle pretty good playing with the kids in the driveway and ended up with a grade 3 sprain.  By Thursday I was able to get back to some exercise with a heavily taped ankle.  I did a 3.5 miler on the treadmill at 29:50, then on Sunday got back out on the bike for an hour and a half doing 28 miles.  On Tuesday of this week I did a 5 mile run in 40:13, which was a good pace for me, and followed that up with 2,050 meters in the pool on Thursday.

I am not sure what the next few months have in store as far as events go, but I would think mostly running events over the winter.  I have the Fall 5 miler next weekend in my area and I want to see if I can go sub 40 minutes on that.  This fall and winter is going to be all about continuing to improve my running and getting faster with a lot of speed work, and occasionally some long slow ones.  Right now I just want to run a lot, and supplement that with at least one long swim and bike workout each week.  Not too much planning though!

Augusta 70.3 Review – Part 1 Times

Well, the odyssey is over and in summary this was a great experience.  My main target time indicated earlier was 5:59:00, with a “good day” goal of 5:45:00.  I ended up beating both of them.  My overall time came in at 5 hours, 44 minutes, 6 seconds.  I will take that any day in my first 70.3 race.  The race was scheduled for 3400 participants, but the final finishing number was 2509, with 370 in my age group finishing.

Swim Goal time was 30 minutes, and I blew that out of the water with a 25:07 swim time.  This was good for 55th fastest in my age group (35-39) which had 370 racers, and 389th in the entire race.  This was my first mass start in the water (holding a rope until the bell) and it was pretty hectic for the first 4-5 minutes.  Once I was able to get closer to the shoreline (and the shortest distance) I was able to get some space, find a good rhythm and felt very comfortable the entire swim.  If I pushed it I could have gotten under 24 minutes!

Transition one was planned for 4 minutes, and for some reason I took 5.  Not sure what took me so long.  Need to improve that one for sure.

The bike ride had two goals, primary was to average at least 17.2mph which would get me in at 3:15:00, and if I had a good ride to ride at 18.6mph which would mean a 3 hour flat ride.  Even by following my plan of taking it easy the first half of the ride I was able to smash both of those goals.  Final ride time came in at 2:51:33, a 19.5mph average.  Must have been a fast ride for a lot of people as that time was 980th overall and 172nd in my age group (still in the top half).  Ride was flat for the first 15 miles with a slight tailwind, and the weather remained cloudy most of the time.  Once you turned north on the course the wind became a cross/headwind and the terrain became full of rolling hills.  I had no problems with the length and slope of the climbs.  My hill repeats and the terrain near my house definitely paid off here.  Most of the uphill's I was passing guys around me, and on the downhill sections is where the aero bikes would catch me.  One thing this ride put in my brain, its time to step up to a real triathlon specific bike with good aero wheels.  I could have shaved a lot of time with the same effort.  Took it easy the last few miles and got into some higher gears to increase my cadence before the run.  I think this really helped as my legs felt totally fine coming out of transition.

 

Transition 2 came in at 2:28 and I planned for 3 minutes, so that was a good transition.

Now the run.  This is where I struggled a bit.  My goal time was a 9:30 pace which would bring me in at 2h 5 minutes.  I ended up running a 2:19:21, which was pretty close to my ING Half Marathon time in March.  I felt great at the start.  As the winner Greg Bennett mentioned it was mentally a very tough course.  Two loops, four straightaway's each loop that were somewhere in close to 1 3/4 mile each.  It was a great scene in downtown Augusta with the crowds, but it was a challenge to not hope that the NEXT block was going to be the turnaround (when it was always about 7-8 more blocks down). The sun was out by then and the temps were up in the mid 80’s.  I didn’t ever feel overwhelmed, but after running the first mile around 9 minutes, I just could not keep that gear turning.  At the 7 mile split I was averaging 10:48 min/mile pace, and my final 6.1 mile split I lowered that a bit to 10:26 min/mile pace.  So to find something positive, at least I had a negative split for my pace.

5:44:06

I am very pleased with the result.  Looking at the overall trend, I was in 389th place (55 in Age Group) after the swim, 909th place (172) after the bike, and 1207th overall place (213) at the end. By percentages I finished in the 51% bracket with all men in the race (926 of 1,808).  My time percentile versus the entire field (percentage placement within the entire race field) was 15.13% on the swim, 38.9% on the bike, and 61.37% on the run. 

In order to get competitive it is pretty obvious where I need to improve, however I have come a long way from just finishing these races.  Swimming is right where I need to be, Bike could use some improvement however a better aero setup will pay off to get a few mph added, but my run needs the most work.  If I can get my half marathon pace down to 9 minutes and my 10k splits into the high 7’s, I can start competing for age group placement next year.

So next up.  What to do with the upcoming months (running plan) and what races to look at next year.

First Wetsuit Swim

Last swim before the race today, a little over 800 yards with the wetsuit on to make sure I at least swam with it once.  The fit is perfect.  I was a bit surprised at the difference and additional glide you get with the suit.  Stroke rate is typically around 18 per 25 meter length in the pool, and I was at 15 with the suit on.  It seems to be going on a bit easier than the first time I tried it on as well, so all looks good.

Leaving town tomorrow and hitting the pre-race briefing, expo, and have to rack the bike as well.  The forecast is a bit unpredictable as it looks like a slight chance of rain in the morning on Sunday with highs in the afternoon reaching into the mid 80’s.  That will mean humidity and I will need to make sure to take my Enduralytes.  Tomorrow I will put up some photos from the race site and transition area and the main focus of the day will be to get there safely, get checked in and setup, and get off my feet.